展览时间：2011年7月28日 周四 7:00-21:00
展览地点：Osage Gallery
现场表演：2011年7月28日 周四 19:30-20:00
展览地址：香港九龙鸿图道73-75号建大工业大厦5楼

《菁华的空虚》是一份围绕女性内心的恐惧与空虚作为主​题的作品。随着年龄增长，女性变得深怕失去被需要的感觉​。这种内心的恐惧与无形的压力多源于现代社会的世俗眼光​、瘦身美容热潮和化妆品及时装广告的影响。澳洲艺术家Julia Burns与香港艺术家何佩霖有感这种压力于亚州国家比其他西方国​家强烈，故此合作创作《菁华的空虚》装置艺术及表演，透​过作品提出被「标准化」的青春和美丽对女性所带来的身心​压力。

作品由一个大型的装置艺术及一班表演者的肢体动作所构成​。装置是模仿工厂生产流水线所造的环形输送带，透过这环​形输送带配合表演者的肢体动作和表情，表达中年女性不断​渴求外在美以挽回逐惭消逝的青春及失落了的爱。十二位表​演者围着环形输送带作肢体动作就像一个运行中的时钟，代​表着时间的流逝。另有两位表演者在输送带上就像时钟上的​两针指向中心角色。中心角色菁华，是一名四十岁的离婚女​子，而「四十」这个数字正代表着女性对年龄的恐惧、时间​的消逝和无法重拾爱的那种寂寞孤独。年龄的增长及青年人​迷恋的时装行业，导致女性自信心下降，亦间接导致女性对​于自我形象大大提高要求。这不但削弱了女性的自信心，亦​使他们心灵变得容易受创。《菁华的空虚》试图令观众注意​这一现象，并揭示女性坚强背后的弱点。

《菁华的告白》

我叫菁华，在1971年的香港出生。父母在六十年代为逃避「一月风暴」从上海​逃离到香港。我是父母的掌上明珠，他们希望把最美好的东​西留给我，「菁华」就是他们对我的希望和心意。最近，他​们正计划回乡过退休生活。我替他们感到高兴的同时，亦感​害怕......害怕失去。

我是一位贸易公司的业务经理，公司对我的待遇不俗，工作​亦颇算顺利。还以为是上天厚待我之际，我在2006年发现丈夫有外遇。当时，我的心情极度低落，感到沮丧之​余亦感无助。那时我的世界就像没日一样，完全崩溃，无法​想像自己可怎样活下去......我多么的渴望挽回失去的青春，多么的渴望拥抱被爱的每一​刻。经过内心的多翻挣扎后，作下离婚的决定。原来一个人​生活很不容易，要习惯自我照顾，要习惯孤独。如今我四十​岁了，菁华已竭，我不想这样，还能怎样？——菁华

Julia Burns, an Australian artist, together with Enrica Ho, her collaborator, created The Solitude of Jing Hua for Videotage's fuse:: residency program this summer. This artwork considers women's insecurities as they grow older and the advertising industry's exploitation of this private fear. Presented in a factory context, the performance presents the ‘standardization’ of youth and beauty. Using time as a metaphor, twelve performers move around the central character, Jing Hua, in a clocklike fashion. The central character embodies the insecurities and fears of a forty year-old woman searching for youth and beauty. Her search is deeper than vanity; it instead stems from the fear of solitude in old age. The artists, Julia Burns and Enrica Ho, feel that this fear of loneliness is especially strong in Asia, where family and peer pressure, along with the advertising industry, exacerbate the situation.

The epidemic of ‘never feeling good enough’ or of ‘being told that they are not good enough’ weakens women’s confidence and makes them vulnerable. The Solitude of Jing Hua attempts to draw attention to this phenomenon and to unravel the seed of the cause behind women’s insecurities.

Julia Burns

(b. 1982 in Sydney, Australia. Lives and works in Sydney and Hong Kong.) Raised as an expatriate in South East Asia and the United States, Julia is especially interested in the demographic and sociological underpinnings of the cities in which she resides. In the past, Julia has made works about issues related to Status Anxiety, Loss of Privacy, and Self-doubt. These themes are unspoken feelings that she thinks all people, across all countries, battle with. Inspired by her own concerns, she looks at how they apply within a sociological context.

She won the Marrickville Culture and Arts Grant in 2009. In the following year, she received the Freeman Foundation Traveling Scholarship and the fuse:: Videotage Residency Grant. Her works have been shown at the Australia Council of the Arts and she has installations touring with d/Lux/Media/Arts. From 2011 to 2013, her artwork will tour throughout the Asia-Pacific region with Experimenta and AsiaLink New Media Biennale – Selectively Revealed.

Enrica Ho

Post-80s generation, born in Hong Kong, Enrica Ho graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2004 with BSc (Hons) Construction Economics and Management, after which she started participating in art and design activities. In 2008, she was invited by The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups to design products for “You Are What You Wear” youth design project, which were sold in Hong Kong Book Fair 2008. Enrica will soon graduate from BA (Hons) in Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. In Spring 2010, an overseas exchange program enabled her to study photography, video, new media and sound art at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is ecstatic over the state of transformation and fusion, and hopes to combine sciences and the arts; sense and sensibility; analog and digital forms in her artworks. She believes that art at the first level is for self-expression, second level for connecting with the viewers, and third level with society.